The Embodiment of Nonduality
Welcome to "The Temple of Silence" substack
Exploring the Embodiment of Nonduality
Introduction
I play the role of a long-time police officer, fortunate to include advocacy as part of my approach to serving the community. For the past several years, I have worked as a Mobile Crisis Officer, patrolling in partnership with a mental health nurse. Together, we engage with those facing mental health challenges, addictions, dementia, homelessness, and other complex struggles.
Through the lens of the non-dual understanding, our aim is to meet people exactly where they are—without judgment, without agenda—and ease the suffering of those who are often among the most marginalized in society. This same understanding that informs my work is also what I share here.
Welcome
This space is for exploring nonduality—not as a belief system, philosophy, or practice to master, but as the direct recognition of the ground of all experience. Here you’ll find reflections, poetry, and practical discussions pointing to the peace, clarity, and freedom already present, even in the midst of life’s challenges.
What is Nonduality?
· Not a belief to adopt - it is what you already are
· The recognition that all experiences arise in Awareness
· Radically inclusive: nothing is outside of this
· Even the sense of separation is embraced within Awareness
Why This Matters
Recognizing Awareness as your true nature brings:
· Peace untouched by circumstances
· Freedom from psychological time
· Resilience when faced with life’s challenges
· Clarity in seeing through the mind for what it is - a survival program
· An end to psychological suffering
The Tenets of Nonduality
Attached to this post is a document that outlines “The Tenets of Nonduality” as put together by members of “The Temple of Silence” zoom group. The tenets are listed here but the document provides an expanded explanation of each one. Nonduality points to a fundamental understanding: our essence is Awareness - an open, unchanging presence that underlies all experience. In recognizing this, we uncover a peace and contentment that do not depend on circumstances. These tenets outline a journey of self-discovery, inviting us to shift identification from the transient phenomena of mind and body to stable, ever-present Awareness.
Download "The Tenets of Nonduality" (PDF)
1. The Sole Reality of Awareness
2. The True “I Am”
3. The Ordinary Nature of Awareness
4. Awareness as Unchanging and Stable
5. Impermanence of Phenomena
6. Unconditional Openness of Awareness
7. The Immediacy of Now and Freedom from Psychological Time
8. The Non-Existence of a Separate Self
9. Awareness as the True Experiencer
10. True Happiness as Non-Resistance
11. Recognition of Inherent Bliss
Poetry as a Pointer - “The Journey” by Walter Cecchini from the book “The Temple of Silence”
The Journey
There is no need to pack for this journey of ours,
no toothbrush, no luggage, no planes, trains or cars
Dropping the thought that this journey is far
we have no need to wait to arrive where we are
Our birthname forgotten and roles left behind
we remove all the traces of how we once were defined
Closing our eyes we leave our senses alone
set aside past and future and return to our home
The mind may complain and say that it’s bored
always wanting an outcome, it seeks a reward
Let mind say what it will, allow these protests,
pay no attention, soon it will rest
What remains can’t be measured, no shape, color or size
nothing to hear or to see with the eyes
What cannot be removed cannot be denied,
re‐discovering our Self, in this we abide
Turning back to the world, we take our stand as the light
experience losing its power to alter our sight
***
‘The Journey’ could be seen as a metaphor that describes going from restless and searching to quiet homecoming.
It begins in the familiar way, ‘the human condition’: chasing, striving, collecting moments and milestones as if they could complete us. That restless movement outwards is something nearly everyone knows: the sense that somewhere else, somehow else, is the key to peace.
But then comes a gentle turning around... The recognition dawns that the running/striving itself was the veil, and that what we longed for was never absent. In the simple act of stopping, of letting go into what is here, the imagined distance between “me” and what I seek dissolves.
The seeker, once so central, falls away as darkness disappears when turning on a light switch. What remains is not an achievement but an unveiling - a clarity that was here before the chase began and will remain after all striving fades.
In that space, life is no longer something to grasp at or arrange. It is simply lived - without the burden of becoming, yet rich with the quiet completeness of being.
Summary
Nonduality is not a belief to adopt, a practice to master, or a destination to reach. It is the recognition of what is already true - the simple fact of being, unbound by time, unaffected by circumstance. In this re-cognition (or remembering), life’s challenges still arise, but without the added burden of a separate “me” to carry them.
Here, all views, all experiences, all (apparent) people are included - yet are seen as passing appearances within the unchanging ground. This understanding is not about escape; it is about living fully, openly, and fearlessly, right here where you are.
Thank-you
If you enjoyed this content, please subscribe to receive email when new posts are made. If you enjoyed the poem “The Journey”, please visit books.by/beingwalter to check out my books, “Take Heart, Seeker” and “The Temple of Silence”.
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